Daily Prophets
Day 64
“In that day, the Lord, God of Hosts called for weeping and lamentation, and baldness and finding with sackcloth; and behold, joy and. Gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine. Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die! The Lord of Hosts has revealed in my ears: this iniquity shall not be pardoned until you die, says my Lord of Hosts”(Isaiah 22:12-14).
Isaiah is calling out and crying out to the people, the leaders, to the king: Stop believing someone else is going to save you-only Adonai, God can do this. You are doing things that go against the creations of God, the ways of God and then you are surprised that you will die and Judah will be ruined?
What is God asking in these verses? God is telling us that we have to take an inventory of our ways, see how and where we have strayed from God’s path, be overcome with the enormity of our errors, experience the sadness of our betrayal of the Covenant with God and have a day of sadness, Tshuvah, fasting and correction.
Yet, the people respond with “eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die”. How ignorant, how cruel to themselves and their families, friends, how ridiculous after seeing what happened to Israel for the same way of being! Yet, the people seemed to have forgotten God, forgotten the path of return that their ancestors used, forgotten that change is necessary and arrogance is death.
God’s proclamation in the last verse above is not a “mean and vengeful God” rather it is God telling us that when we stray so far off the path as to cause our own destruction and death, we will still be forgiven in our death. Death is the choice we make when we ignore God and “eat and drink” today “for tomorrow we shall die”. Yet, God’s compassion is so great and love so encompassing we will be forgiven when we die.
Rabbi Heschel calls this “Uncanny Indifference” in his book The Prophets on page 90. He goes on to say on page 90: “ Callousness is sovereign and smug; it clings to the soul and will not give in. The crack of doom is in the air, but the people, unperturbed, are carried away by a rage to be merry.” This teaching is so true and historic, yet we continue to ignore it in every generation. We give in to the callousness and are deceived by ourselves and another(s) to believe we are just ‘defending our values’. We see the soul sickness that callousness has caused throughout the millennia and still believe we don’t have it. We are going to be willfully blind to the doom that we are courting and, instead, revel in our greatness and eat and drink at the altar of power and indifference.
Our political system is a prime example of these words. God has called out to We, The People, to care for another(s) as friends, family, etc. God is telling us to stop drinking and eating at the banquet of cruelty and callousness. Stop being indifferent to the suffering of another(s) human being and calling it good. Stop disenfranchising people based on color, creed, religion, party affiliation, zip code, etc. Return to the path and principles that people first came here-religious freedom, communal living and under God. God doesn’t want the callousness and cruelty, God doesn’t want senseless hatred and deceptions. McConnell and his cronies believe that they can avoid the doom they are creating so they continue to “eat and be merry”. They need to read these verses in their church more often.
In recovery, we are well aware of our own callousness and cruelty. We take our inventory once and then continue to see how we are straying from God’s path each and every day. We also see how we are honoring God’s gift of life each and every day as well. We make amends as soon as we realize our errors and we lament our callousness and cruelty. In recovery, we are eager to reconnect with God/Higher Power and know that straying is certain death, spiritually if not physically at the moment of straying. We realized the errors of our “eat and drink” as many of us have seen the death, cruelty and destruction that comes from this way of being. In recovery, we “turn our lives over to the care of God” so that we continue to minimize the damage we do, continually ‘come home to God’ and join together to rebuild our lives and help others rebuild/build good lives.
I have worn the sackcloth and wept and lamented my errors in order to repent for my errors. I know the power of deep introspection that leads to change of behavior and I know the power of T’Shuvah that heals the wounds I have caused. I also know that God, unlike humans, doesn’t hold a grudge. God, unlike humans, doesn’t find ways to not be appeased and to not accept T’Shuvah. God, unlike humans, doesn’t extract a pound of flesh just because God can. God, unlike humans, respects, honors and loves, the dignity of all humans, even when they err-as is the case with our biblical heroes. I have continued to hone my hearing of God’s call and I know that God keeps opening new horizons for me, for all of us. I know that God joins me in mourning what has died and lifts me up to see what we, God, you and me, can build anew. Callousness or Connection, which do you choose today? Stay safe and God Bless, Rabbi Mark